


something deep and precious

by Gryphoness



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/M, Gen, Multi, Not In Chronological Order, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 09:38:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11010804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryphoness/pseuds/Gryphoness
Summary: Observations, mostly from Tommen Baratheon's viewpoint, about a Westeros in which a person's soul takes an external animal form.





	something deep and precious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Several dæmon names have been changed since this was first written and published. If anyone is interested, I have a list of the dæmon names in this series, and their meanings, which I am happy to discuss should anyone be curious.

Tommen was seven when Joffrey’s dæmon settled. When his brother came to breakfast that morning, his Bellona was a fox, with sleek red fur and dark, cunning eyes. She hopped up onto the table with a distinct air of smugness and Joffrey proclaimed grandly, “Bellona is a fox.”

“We can see that, Joff,” Myrcella replied, as Erianthas lifted his fawn-head to watch their brother with curious eyes.

“No, you little nitwit, I mean she’s a fox permanently,” Joffrey snapped, “She’s settled.” Mother leapt to her feet with a gasp, her lioness rumbling softly as Mother pulled Joff into her arms. Bellona descended from the table and allowed Inanna to fuss over her, eyeing Tommen and Myrcella’s dæmons as though they were somehow even further beneath her than that had been when she too could still change.

After breaking fast with his mother and siblings, Joffrey set off to show his newly-settled dæmon to Father, his step bouncing with the anticipation of the king’s approval. When they returned, Joffrey’s face was dark and Bellona was slinking at his heels with her tail tucked between her legs. “Cahira called me a trickster, Inanna,” she told Cersei’s lioness, her voice shrill with agitation, “She laughed at me and said Joffrey must be more Lannister than Baratheon, because foxes are sneaky and deceptive.”

Minerva instructed Bellona not to listen to that foolish old bear. Tommen and Myrcella exchanged a glance and said nothing.

* * *

At the welcoming feast at Winterfell, all unsettled dæmons took the form of ermines, an old practice of politeness. Tommen had to sit with Lord Stark’s younger daughter, Lady Arya, and her dæmon made a face at his Aurelia when he tried to say hello.

Erianthas was all but fawning over Robb Stark’s dæmon from the moment their humans were introduced. She was settled already, and her gray fur made a pretty contrast compared with her human’s auburn hair. Robb’s Morana was a direwof, like his father’s dæmon, and Myrcella found it enchanting.

“I heard whispers Father is planning a betrothal,” she whispered excitedly to Tommen when they were alone, “Imagine, _me,_ Lady of Winterfell! And Erian could settle as a lion, or a stag, and the four of us would make _such_ a pretty picture.” Tommen didn’t like the thought of Myrcella staying in Winterfell, leaving him and Lia to endure Joffrey and Bellona’s torments on their own. But his sister was so happy at the prospect, and so he kept silent. But Aurelia made sure to stay close to Erianthas’s side as she could through the visit.

In the end, Joffrey was the Baratheon child who left the feast betrothed to a Stark, and Tommen spotted Bellona watching Lady Sansa’s gentle Acasios with a hungry gleam in her eye.

The day Myrcella left for Dorne, Erianthas and Aurelia were both lion cubs, who curled together and mewled pitifully until Myrcella finally had to board the ship, her dæmon in her arms. A few weeks later, he received a letter from his sister, telling him Erian had not shifted since that day. Tommen pictured Erianthas growing a mane as he got older, and ‘Cella weaving flowers into it. The thought made him laugh through the ache of missing her.

* * *

 Anyone born with the name Lannister had a feline dæmon of some form or another. It was just an accepted fact, had supposedly been since the days of Lann the Clever. With one very notable exception.

Hyenas were a blight upon the land of lions. Filthy, mangy scavengers that stole food from the lions. Hyenas were ugly creatures that did nothing but menace the lions and their young, causing strife and pain and fear. At least, that’s what Tommen’s mother said when he asked why her Inanna was so hostile to Uncle Tyrion’s dæmon. Lions and hyenas were not meant to get along, she told him. Tyrion's Andromeda, with her cackling cry, was simply unnatural for a Lanister of the Rock, according to Cersei.

And yet, Andromeda was always as kind to Aurelia as Uncle Tyrion himself was to Tommen, and just as protective as Mother's own lioness.

The day Uncle Tyrion married Lady Sansa, she refused to kneel so he could cloak her, and her still-unsettled dæmon took the form of a direwolf, huge and fierce at her side, towering over Andromeda and rumbling low in his throat.

* * *

 Lady Margaery arrived in King's Landing with a cloak of flowers on her shoulders, and a butterfly atop her dark curls. Her dæmon, called Despoina, was a delicate and beautiful thing, her orange wings marked with black lines and tiny white spots. She usually rode on Margaery's shoulder, or in her hair, and Tommen and Aurelia privately wondered how Margaery could stand her dæmon having such a small and fragile form. Margaery couldn't cuddle Despoina when she was sad, or pet her. They wondered what Despoina did about bedtime -- She certainly couldn't lay with her human, as Aurelia did, or she would be crushed.

"Joff will be her husband soon," Lia pointed out one night as they mused over the mystery of it, "And husbands share beds with their wives. Once they're married, I'll just ask Bellona."

But Joffrey never spent a night with his bride. Looking back later, all Tommen could remember of that terrifying night were fragments -- Bellona twitching beside Joffrey's chair as her human's face turned purple. Mother's screams intermingling with Inanna's shrieking roars until he couldn't tell human cry from animal. Despoina wheeling madly above Margaery's head as she sobbed into her mother's arms. Tommen himself, sobbing as Aurelia screamed and screamed and screamed. Mother wailing in anguish as Joffrey stilled in her arms, and Bellona disapated, leaving Inanna covered in a fine sheen of golden Dust.

* * *

Aurelia was an ermine at their wedding, because it seemed to require even more politeness than usual when the wedding you were attending was your own. But after, when he and his hours-wife were put to bed by Uncle Jaime -- his lion watching them with a sort of protectiveness Tommen didn't understand -- Lia shifted back to a kitten, her favorite form and the one she found most comfortable.

As they laid beside each other, Despoina landed on top of Aurelia's head, her wings lightly brushing, soft as a kiss. "Sweet dreams, our love," she told them, her voice faint and whispery.

As it turned out, Margaery's butterfly avoided being hurt in sleep by sleeping on a bedside table. The satisfaction of having an answer kept Tommen awake far past his bedtime.

* * *

 Pate was older than Tommen, and his Giolla was already settled. She was a dog, as all servants' dæmons were, a small dog with brown markings on her white coat, and she was always happy to play with Aurelia despite their differences in status.

The day Tommen shouted at his mother over Margaery, Aurelia had shifted to a lion cub in anger, but she was a kitten once again by the time they reached their chambers, mewling and begging Ser Boros not to follow Mother's orders for Pate. But it wasn't any use, and Tommen was forced to whip his only friend until he bled, and he and Aurelia sobbed the whole time. Once it was over and Ser Boros left the room, Giolla curled up around Lia and licked her head -- Her human had just been beaten, and she was the one doing the comforting. The thought made the little king cry even harder.

"Shhh, shhh, everything will be alright," Pate murmured soothingly, stroking his hand through Tommen's curls, and Tommen thought absently that his whipping boy made a kinder brother than Joffrey had ever been.

* * *

Grandfather's dæmon had been a snow leopard, a lean and beautiful animal with golden eyes that seemed to look straight through a person. Aurelia had always been a little bit afraid of Caeliana, but seeing Grandfather lying on the bier all alone made Tommen wish desperately that she was there. The thought of dying was frightening enough, but Tommen, at only eight, had seen dead bodies before, and the utter absence of their dæmons made him sick to his stomach. Would Aurelia leave him one day, too? She would vanish, when he died, in a puff of gold, as Cahira and Bellona and Caeliana had done. Would he be alone forever, the constant, beloved companion of his heart abandoning him for all eternity?

When Tommen ran from the funeral, Aurelia's claws poked holes in his doublet from the intensity of her grip. 

"Never leave me," he whispered that night, his dæmon held close to his heart, "Even when we die, you have to stay with me forever."

"Never," she purred softly, and Tommen could feel the familiar, comforting warmth of her against him, "Never ever. Even the Stranger couldn't keep us apart."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dæmons featured in this piece:
> 
> Tommen: Aurelia, female, unsettled  
> Myrcella: Erianthas, male, unsettled  
> Joffrey: Bellona, female, fox  
> Robb: Morana, female, direwolf  
> Sansa: Acasious, male, unsettled  
> Cersei: Inanna, female, lioness  
> Robert: Cahira, female, grizzly bear  
> Tyrion: Andromeda, female, spotted hyena  
> Margaery: Despoina, female, monarch butterfly  
> Jaime: Hysminas, male, lion  
> Pate: Giolla, female, Jack Russell terrier  
> Tywin: Caeliana, female, snow leopard


End file.
